going to nairobi specifically, and will be staying with a lovely and reliable gentleman i've been exchanging emails with by the name of joseph. he owns an orphanage called havilla foundations, and i'll be over there volunteering! should be a blast. you're welcome to come along, i'm great fun.

Well, that certainly sounds like fun, and I've been wanting to escape the cold weather up here.

I'm a Dutch native speaker, English is my secondary language (finished my exams and received my certificate for it last year) and I'm still learning German. I ought to have it's certificate by the start of summer.

Put me down for French. I want to try and remember those 6 years of school lessons (that went down the drain, though of no fault of the teacher's).

I can give help with Arabic to anyone who needs. Though it won't be easy because pretty much every single Arabic speaking country does it differently. I used to understand whenever someone speaks portuguese, but it depends on the area. I don't think I can anymore though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pagan_Poetry

I'm trying to learn Icelandic

Did you find 'Colloquial Icelandic'? It's pretty much my only resource atm

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by sickman411

We're all the best except for Ali.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EndTheRapture51

..this whole "white men have it so easy in life" thing that is being peddled around on the internet right now is bullshit.

If you're learning Japanese, and have an Android phone, I urge you to install these two apps, as they're all one could ever need at the beginner level:

Obenkyo - This is basically your one-stop shop for hiragana, katakana, numbers, and kanji. It also has an extensive range of basic grammar lessons. If your phone/tablet comes with a stylus, you can even try practising the strokes for all the symbols. You can use the stroke practise functionality without a stylus too, though.

JED - This is perhaps the best Japanese-English dictionary app I have come across. You can search by English, romaji, kana, and kanji. It has a huge list of words, and every entry has the kanji, kana, general style of usage [polite/casual speech], verb formations, and example sentences. Definitely a must-have. Make sure you're on a Wi-Fi connection or have a good data plan before you download this, since the dictionary is in excess of 100 MB, IIRC. But, the good thing is, once you download it, you can use it even if you don't have any Internet on your phone.

I find myself using the dictionary a lot more than the Obenkyo app. Not that Obenkyo isn't useful [far from it], but because I hear a lot of spoken Japanese almost every day, and I always look up the word on the dictionary app.

I'll list some websites later on, so Kjell can include them in the OP.

There probably should be iPhone or Windows Phone equivalents for the two apps I mentioned, but don't take my word for it. What the hell are you doing on an iPhone anyway?

If anybody is learning Latin, the Cambridge Classics Project is a great resource:

Cambridge School Classics Project - Cambridge Latin Course
It has all of the stories from the course books - you can translate specific words just by clicking on them (for Book V, it also tells you grammatical information regarding the tense and such). There are vocabulary tests and other activities. There are also links to pages on the cultural background. It's free to use, but it doesn't contain the lessons on grammar, words, or cultural background from the books. There are also no further activities on the stories - it just has the stories themselves. You can buy the books or E-learning materials (only for the first 2 books, I think) from the site as well.
There's also some resources for Ancient Greek on the site, from Eton College:http://www.cambridgescp.com/page.php?p=ag^Eton^intro
Some further free Ancient Greek resources here:Dr. ShirleyOpen University

I'm a beginner in Latin. Thinking about starting Ancient Greek. I also have secondary-school-level knowledge of French (very little).

That'd be great if you could. I want to start learning Japanese, but it's the Kanji that looks the most daunting. I can probably handle speaking, but the writing/reading is what's giving me worries.

Kanji is definitely daunting, but there's no way around it, I'm afraid. You don't have to rush into learning kanji, just start with the most common ones. Think of your basic needs in English, and learn their corresponding kanji.

Speaking is quite easy in Japanese, since their language is probably one of the easiest things ever, in terms of pronunciation. Writing and reading are what worry me too, haha. Many "experts" have their own methods, and they obviously know more than me, but I think one should learn the way they feel comfortable. Then again, there are some guidelines. For instance, don't rely too much on romaji. Use only kana without kanji if you have to, but try to avoid romaji altogether. This, of course, applies only when you start out, since kanji is pretty much essential.

If you have an Android phone, definitely download the apps I mentioned.

If you're learning Japanese, and have an Android phone, I urge you to install these two apps, as they're all one could ever need at the beginner level:

Obenkyo - This is basically your one-stop shop for hiragana, katakana, numbers, and kanji. It also has an extensive range of basic grammar lessons. If your phone/tablet comes with a stylus, you can even try practising the strokes for all the symbols. You can use the stroke practise functionality without a stylus too, though.

JED - This is perhaps the best Japanese-English dictionary app I have come across. You can search by English, romaji, kana, and kanji. It has a huge list of words, and every entry has the kanji, kana, general style of usage [polite/casual speech], verb formations, and example sentences. Definitely a must-have.

I find myself using the dictionary a lot more than the Obenkyo app. Not that Obenkyo isn't useful [far from it], but because I hear a lot of spoken Japanese almost every day, and I always look up the word on the dictionary app.

I'll list some websites later on, so Kjell can include them in the OP.

There probably should be iPhone or Windows Phone equivalents for the two apps I mentioned, but don't take my word for it. What the hell are you doing on an iPhone anyway?

Good recommendations. I have an iPhone, but I've found a pretty similar dictionary on the app store. Might have to dig harder to find a good iPhone version of Obenkyo though.

I've been learning Chinese for 2 years at Uni now and have found this site INCREDIBLY useful: http://www.nciku.com/ (sorry if it's already been posted, I haven't had time to read the whole thread). If you find a character you don't know, you can draw it and it'll detect it 99% of the time (if using a physical dictionary ain't yo thang). Lots of example sentences too.